Structural and magnetic study of magnetoelectric perovskite Sr2CoMoO6

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2006

A study of the crystal and magnetic structure of the double perovskite Sr2CoMoO6 has been carried out on a polycrystalline sample using neutron diffraction (NPD) data between 10-700K. An analysis of NPD patterns at 295K has shown that this compound crystallizes in the tetragonal space group 14/m with a = 5.5616(l) and c = 7.9470(2) angstrom and has a 1:1 ordered arrangement of the B-sites. This compound undergoes a 14/m -> Fm3m improper ferroelectric phase transition near 563 K. A low-temperature antiferomagnetic ordering (below T-N = 37 K) has been followed from a sequence of low-temperature NPD data sets. The magnetic structure is defined by the propagation vector (k) over right arrow = (1/2,0,1/2). Alongside the obtained experimental results on magnetic and electric properties some aspects of magnetoelectricity in this perovskite is also discussed.